On the one-year mark of Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza, Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) laments the failure of the Canadian government to achieve a ceasefire and stop Israel’s murderous actions. With more than 42,612 Palestinians killed in Gaza and with Israel expanding its deadly attacks against the Lebanese people, CJPME believes that Canada’s continued inaction in response to Israel’s deliberate mass killing of civilians shows that it has failed to learn any lessons from the last year. CJPME urges Canada to respond to genocide by cutting off its ties with Israel, including through the imposition of a two-way arms embargo and sanctions on Israeli leaders.

“Over the past year, we have witnessed the collective failure of Canada and its NATO allies, especially the US, to stop genocide unfolding in Gaza. At home, Canadians have watched their political leaders and news media normalize, rationalize, and even cheer on Israel’s genocidal acts,” said Thomas Woodley, President of CJPME. “Canada must finally pull the plug on its support for this genocidal regime, and do everything it can to bring war criminals to justice.”

CJPME notes that Israel’s genocidal campaign against the Palestinian people did not start on October 7, 2023, but followed 76 years of dispossession and 57 years of occupation and apartheid. Throughout these years of oppression – and especially under the Harper and Trudeau governments – Canada has continuously spoken of Israel as a friend and ally and sought to defend it from criticism. Consistent with this lamentable track record, it took many weeks following the start of Israel’s murderous assault on Gaza before the Trudeau government began to express sympathy for Palestinians, and months before it finally called for a ceasefire. Amid Israel’s murderous campaign, Canada responded by projecting the Israeli flag onto Parliament’s Peace Tower, defunding the UN agency for Palestine refugees, introducing a racist visa program that failed to reunite Palestinian families from Gaza, and allowing the continued flow of most arms exports to fuel Israel’s war machine.

“If anything has strengthened our resolve over the past year as we have borne witness to massacre after massacre, it is the fact that many thousands of Canadians in dozens of cities across the countries have continued to demonstrate every single week for a ceasefire and a two-way arms embargo. Trudeau must stop arming Israel’s actions, and join the vast majority of the public who oppose Israel’s appalling violence in Palestine and Lebanon,” said Woodley.

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Featured image: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during the COP21, United Nations Climate Change Conference, in Le Bourget, outside Paris on November 30, 2015. Amos Ben Gershom/GPO